Post by Lady Britannia on Apr 25, 2019 17:38:43 GMT -5
Lady Victoria
In this crazy world where super humans, aliens and other worldly creatures show up on the streets of the city at the rate of four per hour, there is a whole broad spectrum of abilities and powers to be had. Naturally I don’t have the one I could really use right about now, the ability to not be affected by the weather. At three in the morning in early spring, the northeast still gets too cold to be skulking around on rooftops and in dark alleys. While I’d much rather be curled up in bed, the gang I’m after seems to think the only time they can conduct their illegal activities is in the dead of night. This is my third straight night of surveillance on this old mansion outside of the city limits and I’m starting to think the guy I beat up for this information might have lied to me. That prospect and the fact that my thermos of coffee ran dry two hours ago is putting me in an irritable mood.
The house is dark and over half the windows having gaping holes where their panes of glass should be. On more than one occasion I’ve seen a bird fly into the house through one of these holes, no doubt heading to a nest it’s buried deep inside. Or a raccoon has slowly ambled down the faded green and warping wood porch to disappear into a dark crevice at the far corner of the house. The hinges on the gate of the wrought iron fence have rusted so badly that one of them hangs limping off of one bracket while the other lies in the middle of the footpath where it fell. I’m also fairly certain that I’ve seen and heard the five foot tall weeds in what used to be the front yard rustle as something hidden moved through them. I so hope it’s still too cold for snakes to be active.
I’ve been studying the small glint of new, polished chrome that peeks out of the corner of the small, sagging garage at the rear of the lot. It’s been hidden well and you have to know where and what you’re looking for, but thanks to the heightened senses my powers give me, I can easily see the well washed and waxed late 1970’s sedan parked there. It hasn’t moved in the last three nights which means despite the uninviting look of the macabre mansion, somebody’s home. I have no idea how many people are hiding inside and I’d much rather do this quietly with no one around instead of creating a huge ruckus, not that anyone this far out would even notice it.
I find myself ducking even further behind the dense trees I’m hiding behind when the engine starts and the headlights come on. After wishing and praying for them to leave, I almost cry out in surprise when they do. The car pulls out slowly and approaches the side of the gate that surrounds the property and when it’s just a few yards away, I hear a small almost imperceptible hum as an entire ten foot section of the gate slowly slides into a recess in the ground. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s new too.
The front and back doors are locked which isn’t surprising. The fact that they’re reinforced steel with detailed paint and etching to make them appear to be wood is. I walk the length of the wraparound porch, checking all the windows. Unlike the ones I’ve seen on the upper floors, not a one of these are broken and a quick tap of my knuckles on the glass tells me I’m not going to be able to break them. I step out into the side yard and leap up onto the porch roof landing just opposite one of the windows I spotted earlier. Time to make like a bird. As I’m crawling through hole in the window pane I’m more than aware of the fact that the occupants of this home probably know every fissure, crack, hole and egress on the upper floors of this home and take special care to not disturb what glass does remain in the window frame. Someone has gone through a lot of trouble to make this house unremarkable. The tight fit of the hole I’m crawling through coupled with my caution to not dislodge any of the dangling shards of glass ends up costing me a nice foot long slash on the back of my clothing. I can feel the skin along my back sting as the glass digs a long scratch down my shoulder blade.
I move through the house quickly searching it room by room, finding nothing of interest besides the carefully placed decrepit furniture and scattered debris. The kitchen is where I strike payday, unless of course all cellar doors come with solid gray, riveted steel. Unless I can find a way past this thing three nights of freezing my tail off has gone to waste. There’s a small hole, about the size of a quarter on the right of the door and when I step in front of it to inspect it, it lights up. I mean, literally, ray of light shooting out engulfing me like some scanning device out of bad science fiction movies covering me from head to toe. It swirls over me for less than ten seconds when it suddenly collapses to two inch beam and focuses directly into my eye.
“Retinal scan complete, Victoria Hartwell, Dawn Patrol access granted” chimes a robotic voice and the door slides away.
“Oh shit…”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The room was small yet brightly lit with a single door and no windows. There were no phones, no computers and two heavily armed soldiers guarded the outsides corridor. The room was checked and scrubbed twice a week for listening and recording devices even when it wasn’t going to be used. The five of them sat at a round table. Much like King Arthur’s knights the shape of the table was to imply that no one of them were to be deemed superior to the other, but everyone knew the woman in the dark leather ran the show. They waited patiently as she reviewed the report, none of them daring to look up at her. She sighed as she laid the file down, almost throwing it back at them.
“This is a monumental screw up gentleman. Do any of you realize the position this puts me it when the rest of them find out?” she said.
“We haven’t clearly identified the probability that the rest of them will….”
“The ‘probability’ became a hundred percent certainty when the damn door opened for her.” She said cutting him off. She turned back to the rest of them. “Anyone want to be the one to tell me how she managed to infiltrate the facility?”
“As near as we can tell, the computer security AI,….made a rational assumption, that she was cleared and allowed her access.” Said a middle aged gentleman in combat fatigues that sat on her left hand side.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked.
“Victoria Hartwell is the chosen of the Alabaster Serpent.” He said. She made a small gesture with her hands and head to indicate she didn’t follow his explanation. He leaned over on the table, clasping his hands. “It’s a magical talisman that we once tried to gain possession of twenty four years ago. The hunt for the artifact resulted in, ‘unfortunate’ losses for both us and Victoria Hartwell. She lost her parents in the investigation, and we lost both her and the artifact until four years ago.”
“What happened four years ago?” she asked.
“Victoria Hartwell resurfaced here in Paragon City, registered with the Superhuman Affairs Division under the name of Lady Victoria and joined the Dawn Patrol. It seems her situation is unique in that she’s buying time in the rather expansive library of MAGI by doing duty as one of Paragon’s costume heroes.”
“What is she looking for in the MAGI library?”
“She seems to be researching all the mystical religions, cults, and mythology of the Alabaster Serpent in hopes of tracking down the group that killed her parents while trying to steal the artifact from her father’s antiquities collection.”
“This just gets better the more you go on. I think the pieces are falling into place now. Her entire dossier is in the Dawn Patrol database. Records that no doubt include a full historical file of her life story mentioning the Alabaster Serpent artifact in her possession.”
“Yes and that information in turn triggered a keyword cross reference with our own computer records of unrecovered artifacts and the AI made the assumption that she was to be granted access.” At this point she allowed herself to smile and shook her head slightly. “So it was our own security protocols that rogered us over. Okay, we need to get working on damage control.” She stood up and they all rose from the table.
“First, find out what, if anything, she either removed or discovered during the sixteen minutes and twenty three seconds she was in the facility. Second, get a full level four purge team on site. I want it moved and scrubbed in the next eighteen hours, don’t give me your jaw drop look and try to tell me it’s not enough time, get it done. I’m going to call our mole and tell them they’ve just been put into play.” She grabbed the door handle and turned for one last command before she opened it.
“And find the programmer or programmers responsible for security at the site and make them disappear.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dawn Patrol Headquarters, Tuesday, 5:25 am. The office of Leftenant Crimsonstar
Marsius Denthar had come into the Dawn Patrol offices earlier than usual as a result of direct request from Dawn Patrol member, Lady Victoria. She requested to meet him as soon as possible, and she sounded extremely distraught on his communicator when she reached him. He purposefully told her to meet him at 5:30 so he could have time to review her service record in DP. Her after action reports she had filed on her missions and her attendance was flawless. She had never requested leave in the four years she had been an active member and hers were one of the few Patrollers whose reports were always concise, to the point and never left out critical details of her findings. If she were an officer of the Star Brigade back in his home galaxy she would no doubt be an officer by this time.
She sat in a chair directly opposite him now and he was more than a bit, concerned, over her appearance. She obviously hadn’t slept and had already in the space of five minutes asked for reassurances that they were the only two in the DP headquarters currently.
“Victoria, what’s going on?” he asked her with his concerns over her state of mind evident in his voice.
“I’m sure you’ve read my file and reviewed my service record, so you know that my agenda as a registered hero in Paragon serves a personal purpose.” She said.
“Two weeks ago I got a lead from a former high ranking priest of the Circle of Thorns.” She continued. “He had a falling out with them three years ago, over matters he wouldn’t elaborate on, but he told me of a secret organization whose purpose was the gathering of rare and powerful mystical artifacts.” She stood up, took a nervous look out into the hallway, and sat back down. “Four days ago I finally tracked down the location of this group and was able to gain access to their hideout. The ease with which I got in was already alarming enough, their security system not only recognized me but knew of my affiliation with Dawn Patrol. It also became quickly apparent that my source was accurate as I found hallways and room after room of magical talismans, totems, amulets, gauntlets, and things I couldn’t identify. Then I ran across this….” She reached into a small backpack that she had been clutching tightly to her side and pulled out a large, blackened and battered box.
“What is that?” Crimsonstar said reaching over for it.
“It’s a video tape recorder.” Victoria replied. “They used to be rather large before the technology went to mini DVD and hard disk drives.”
“And THIS was kept in this secret hideaway along with items believed to have magical powers? Doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the antiques, does it?” Crimsonstar said. “It’s badly damaged, like it’s been drug through a war.” Lady Victoria didn’t say anything, but looked at him for several long seconds. She took yet another glance of the hallways out his office door. “The tape is still in the unit. It was damaged too badly to come out, but it still plays the last movie it recorded.” She said.
“Are you saying it works?”
“Very much so. I really think you should watch the contents, Leftenant Denthar.”
Crimsonstar turned on the recorder and played back the contents. A meeting had taken place, apparently in a dark, abandoned building. The audio was either muffled or damaged, but the images were clear. Several Rikti were in what appeared to be negotiations with officers of the United States Armed Forces. Crimsonstar recognized Colonel Brandt, the Army officer he had first met when he arrived on Earth. The Colonel had been one of the leading officers in the first Rikti War. It was he who had asked Marsius to assist in the assault on the Rikti ship that was now in the area simply known as the War Zone. Also present at this meeting, were a small contingent of the men and women in familiar dark blue combat leathers, and a woman who they knew all too well. Only she wasn’t the commanding officer they know now. She was, at least in this instance, simply another junior officer. He took note of the date stamp in the bottom right corner of the recording, 11/2/02, just days before Alpha and Omega’s teams assault on the Rikti forces. Marsius watched as Lady Jane took a casual glance at whoever held the video recorder several years ago as members of the United States Armed Forces, and the then acting leaders of Dawn Patrol seemed to strike some kind of deal with the Rikti invaders.
Marsius stood up, snapping off the video recorder. “Victoria, who else have you told about this?” he asked.
“No one, I contacted you first.” She said.
“Good, don’t say anything. I’ll be calling an emergency meeting of all Dawn Patrol personnel AFTER I get this pulled off and uploading into our computers.” He said. Victoria stood up and he thought she seemed a little relieved now that she had revealed what she found to him, but he didn’t want her to get complacent. “Victoria, don’t think this is over. You’ve stumbled into something huge here, and you may be at greater risk now than before you came to me, both of us actually. Keep sharp.”
In this crazy world where super humans, aliens and other worldly creatures show up on the streets of the city at the rate of four per hour, there is a whole broad spectrum of abilities and powers to be had. Naturally I don’t have the one I could really use right about now, the ability to not be affected by the weather. At three in the morning in early spring, the northeast still gets too cold to be skulking around on rooftops and in dark alleys. While I’d much rather be curled up in bed, the gang I’m after seems to think the only time they can conduct their illegal activities is in the dead of night. This is my third straight night of surveillance on this old mansion outside of the city limits and I’m starting to think the guy I beat up for this information might have lied to me. That prospect and the fact that my thermos of coffee ran dry two hours ago is putting me in an irritable mood.
The house is dark and over half the windows having gaping holes where their panes of glass should be. On more than one occasion I’ve seen a bird fly into the house through one of these holes, no doubt heading to a nest it’s buried deep inside. Or a raccoon has slowly ambled down the faded green and warping wood porch to disappear into a dark crevice at the far corner of the house. The hinges on the gate of the wrought iron fence have rusted so badly that one of them hangs limping off of one bracket while the other lies in the middle of the footpath where it fell. I’m also fairly certain that I’ve seen and heard the five foot tall weeds in what used to be the front yard rustle as something hidden moved through them. I so hope it’s still too cold for snakes to be active.
I’ve been studying the small glint of new, polished chrome that peeks out of the corner of the small, sagging garage at the rear of the lot. It’s been hidden well and you have to know where and what you’re looking for, but thanks to the heightened senses my powers give me, I can easily see the well washed and waxed late 1970’s sedan parked there. It hasn’t moved in the last three nights which means despite the uninviting look of the macabre mansion, somebody’s home. I have no idea how many people are hiding inside and I’d much rather do this quietly with no one around instead of creating a huge ruckus, not that anyone this far out would even notice it.
I find myself ducking even further behind the dense trees I’m hiding behind when the engine starts and the headlights come on. After wishing and praying for them to leave, I almost cry out in surprise when they do. The car pulls out slowly and approaches the side of the gate that surrounds the property and when it’s just a few yards away, I hear a small almost imperceptible hum as an entire ten foot section of the gate slowly slides into a recess in the ground. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s new too.
The front and back doors are locked which isn’t surprising. The fact that they’re reinforced steel with detailed paint and etching to make them appear to be wood is. I walk the length of the wraparound porch, checking all the windows. Unlike the ones I’ve seen on the upper floors, not a one of these are broken and a quick tap of my knuckles on the glass tells me I’m not going to be able to break them. I step out into the side yard and leap up onto the porch roof landing just opposite one of the windows I spotted earlier. Time to make like a bird. As I’m crawling through hole in the window pane I’m more than aware of the fact that the occupants of this home probably know every fissure, crack, hole and egress on the upper floors of this home and take special care to not disturb what glass does remain in the window frame. Someone has gone through a lot of trouble to make this house unremarkable. The tight fit of the hole I’m crawling through coupled with my caution to not dislodge any of the dangling shards of glass ends up costing me a nice foot long slash on the back of my clothing. I can feel the skin along my back sting as the glass digs a long scratch down my shoulder blade.
I move through the house quickly searching it room by room, finding nothing of interest besides the carefully placed decrepit furniture and scattered debris. The kitchen is where I strike payday, unless of course all cellar doors come with solid gray, riveted steel. Unless I can find a way past this thing three nights of freezing my tail off has gone to waste. There’s a small hole, about the size of a quarter on the right of the door and when I step in front of it to inspect it, it lights up. I mean, literally, ray of light shooting out engulfing me like some scanning device out of bad science fiction movies covering me from head to toe. It swirls over me for less than ten seconds when it suddenly collapses to two inch beam and focuses directly into my eye.
“Retinal scan complete, Victoria Hartwell, Dawn Patrol access granted” chimes a robotic voice and the door slides away.
“Oh shit…”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The room was small yet brightly lit with a single door and no windows. There were no phones, no computers and two heavily armed soldiers guarded the outsides corridor. The room was checked and scrubbed twice a week for listening and recording devices even when it wasn’t going to be used. The five of them sat at a round table. Much like King Arthur’s knights the shape of the table was to imply that no one of them were to be deemed superior to the other, but everyone knew the woman in the dark leather ran the show. They waited patiently as she reviewed the report, none of them daring to look up at her. She sighed as she laid the file down, almost throwing it back at them.
“This is a monumental screw up gentleman. Do any of you realize the position this puts me it when the rest of them find out?” she said.
“We haven’t clearly identified the probability that the rest of them will….”
“The ‘probability’ became a hundred percent certainty when the damn door opened for her.” She said cutting him off. She turned back to the rest of them. “Anyone want to be the one to tell me how she managed to infiltrate the facility?”
“As near as we can tell, the computer security AI,….made a rational assumption, that she was cleared and allowed her access.” Said a middle aged gentleman in combat fatigues that sat on her left hand side.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked.
“Victoria Hartwell is the chosen of the Alabaster Serpent.” He said. She made a small gesture with her hands and head to indicate she didn’t follow his explanation. He leaned over on the table, clasping his hands. “It’s a magical talisman that we once tried to gain possession of twenty four years ago. The hunt for the artifact resulted in, ‘unfortunate’ losses for both us and Victoria Hartwell. She lost her parents in the investigation, and we lost both her and the artifact until four years ago.”
“What happened four years ago?” she asked.
“Victoria Hartwell resurfaced here in Paragon City, registered with the Superhuman Affairs Division under the name of Lady Victoria and joined the Dawn Patrol. It seems her situation is unique in that she’s buying time in the rather expansive library of MAGI by doing duty as one of Paragon’s costume heroes.”
“What is she looking for in the MAGI library?”
“She seems to be researching all the mystical religions, cults, and mythology of the Alabaster Serpent in hopes of tracking down the group that killed her parents while trying to steal the artifact from her father’s antiquities collection.”
“This just gets better the more you go on. I think the pieces are falling into place now. Her entire dossier is in the Dawn Patrol database. Records that no doubt include a full historical file of her life story mentioning the Alabaster Serpent artifact in her possession.”
“Yes and that information in turn triggered a keyword cross reference with our own computer records of unrecovered artifacts and the AI made the assumption that she was to be granted access.” At this point she allowed herself to smile and shook her head slightly. “So it was our own security protocols that rogered us over. Okay, we need to get working on damage control.” She stood up and they all rose from the table.
“First, find out what, if anything, she either removed or discovered during the sixteen minutes and twenty three seconds she was in the facility. Second, get a full level four purge team on site. I want it moved and scrubbed in the next eighteen hours, don’t give me your jaw drop look and try to tell me it’s not enough time, get it done. I’m going to call our mole and tell them they’ve just been put into play.” She grabbed the door handle and turned for one last command before she opened it.
“And find the programmer or programmers responsible for security at the site and make them disappear.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dawn Patrol Headquarters, Tuesday, 5:25 am. The office of Leftenant Crimsonstar
Marsius Denthar had come into the Dawn Patrol offices earlier than usual as a result of direct request from Dawn Patrol member, Lady Victoria. She requested to meet him as soon as possible, and she sounded extremely distraught on his communicator when she reached him. He purposefully told her to meet him at 5:30 so he could have time to review her service record in DP. Her after action reports she had filed on her missions and her attendance was flawless. She had never requested leave in the four years she had been an active member and hers were one of the few Patrollers whose reports were always concise, to the point and never left out critical details of her findings. If she were an officer of the Star Brigade back in his home galaxy she would no doubt be an officer by this time.
She sat in a chair directly opposite him now and he was more than a bit, concerned, over her appearance. She obviously hadn’t slept and had already in the space of five minutes asked for reassurances that they were the only two in the DP headquarters currently.
“Victoria, what’s going on?” he asked her with his concerns over her state of mind evident in his voice.
“I’m sure you’ve read my file and reviewed my service record, so you know that my agenda as a registered hero in Paragon serves a personal purpose.” She said.
“Two weeks ago I got a lead from a former high ranking priest of the Circle of Thorns.” She continued. “He had a falling out with them three years ago, over matters he wouldn’t elaborate on, but he told me of a secret organization whose purpose was the gathering of rare and powerful mystical artifacts.” She stood up, took a nervous look out into the hallway, and sat back down. “Four days ago I finally tracked down the location of this group and was able to gain access to their hideout. The ease with which I got in was already alarming enough, their security system not only recognized me but knew of my affiliation with Dawn Patrol. It also became quickly apparent that my source was accurate as I found hallways and room after room of magical talismans, totems, amulets, gauntlets, and things I couldn’t identify. Then I ran across this….” She reached into a small backpack that she had been clutching tightly to her side and pulled out a large, blackened and battered box.
“What is that?” Crimsonstar said reaching over for it.
“It’s a video tape recorder.” Victoria replied. “They used to be rather large before the technology went to mini DVD and hard disk drives.”
“And THIS was kept in this secret hideaway along with items believed to have magical powers? Doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the antiques, does it?” Crimsonstar said. “It’s badly damaged, like it’s been drug through a war.” Lady Victoria didn’t say anything, but looked at him for several long seconds. She took yet another glance of the hallways out his office door. “The tape is still in the unit. It was damaged too badly to come out, but it still plays the last movie it recorded.” She said.
“Are you saying it works?”
“Very much so. I really think you should watch the contents, Leftenant Denthar.”
Crimsonstar turned on the recorder and played back the contents. A meeting had taken place, apparently in a dark, abandoned building. The audio was either muffled or damaged, but the images were clear. Several Rikti were in what appeared to be negotiations with officers of the United States Armed Forces. Crimsonstar recognized Colonel Brandt, the Army officer he had first met when he arrived on Earth. The Colonel had been one of the leading officers in the first Rikti War. It was he who had asked Marsius to assist in the assault on the Rikti ship that was now in the area simply known as the War Zone. Also present at this meeting, were a small contingent of the men and women in familiar dark blue combat leathers, and a woman who they knew all too well. Only she wasn’t the commanding officer they know now. She was, at least in this instance, simply another junior officer. He took note of the date stamp in the bottom right corner of the recording, 11/2/02, just days before Alpha and Omega’s teams assault on the Rikti forces. Marsius watched as Lady Jane took a casual glance at whoever held the video recorder several years ago as members of the United States Armed Forces, and the then acting leaders of Dawn Patrol seemed to strike some kind of deal with the Rikti invaders.
Marsius stood up, snapping off the video recorder. “Victoria, who else have you told about this?” he asked.
“No one, I contacted you first.” She said.
“Good, don’t say anything. I’ll be calling an emergency meeting of all Dawn Patrol personnel AFTER I get this pulled off and uploading into our computers.” He said. Victoria stood up and he thought she seemed a little relieved now that she had revealed what she found to him, but he didn’t want her to get complacent. “Victoria, don’t think this is over. You’ve stumbled into something huge here, and you may be at greater risk now than before you came to me, both of us actually. Keep sharp.”
